After letting out a small sigh, we steered our conversation—which had drifted slightly off-track—back to the original topic. The problems that real estate agents might have to worry about in the future didn't have much to do with us at the moment. Our reason for visiting today was, after all, to find a location for our training ground.
We turned our eyes to the documents spread out on the desk and addressed Kiritani-san and Yuta-san.
"When we consider our transportation situation now versus a few years from now, our requirements for the property change a bit."
"That’s true," Kiritani-san agreed. "If you all get your driver’s licenses in a few years, your range of activity will change. Even if a property is in a remote area without public transportation, getting there won't be much of a problem."
"Exactly. From our current standpoint, traveling to remote properties basically means relying on public transport. It would be fine if trains and buses came frequently like they do in the city, but in some places, there are only a few per day. Considering that, we need either a place we can reach by bicycle, a nearby property, or a remote property with public transport close by."
"In that case, several of the properties I brought today fall out of the criteria," Yuta-san noted. "How much travel time are you budgeting for the commute?"
Travel time... How much should we estimate? The three of us looked at each other and began to consult to come up with a tentative figure.
First, if we considered traveling by bicycle to a location deep in the mountains, perhaps we should aim for within a one-hour radius. Even at a speed where the bicycles wouldn't break, we could easily cover over fifty kilometers. That would put neighboring municipalities within reach. If we considered using public transport, including the trip from the nearest train station or bus stop to the property, maybe one or two hours? Even if we just jogged from the nearest station to the property, we could easily cover more than ten kilometers as long as there weren't many people or cars in the way.
"One way... maybe about one or two hours?"
"Yeah. That sounds about right, doesn't it?" Yuji agreed.
"True," Hiiragi-san added. "But if possible, within an hour would be better. I don't want to spend too much time just traveling."
"Then for now, let's look for something within one to two hours of travel," Yuta-san said.
"Wait a moment, Yuta-kun," Kiritani-san interrupted. "Hirose-kun, just to be sure—is that one or two hours based on explorer standards?"
I briefly wore a puzzled expression at Kiritani-san's question, but Yuji immediately caught his meaning and replied.
"Ah, yes. That’s one to two hours of travel time as a mid-tier explorer."
"Then, while we can assume public transportation follows a normal schedule, what kind of time and distance should we expect for travel by bicycle or on foot? As a real estate agent, the standard figure we use is eighty meters per minute for walking. This is based on a straight-line distance on a map. While actual routes might take longer, that’s our basic benchmark."
The intent behind Kiritani-san's question was to synchronize our mutual understanding of travel time. It was certainly true that if we didn't clarify this beforehand, a potentially fatal misunderstanding could occur.
Yuji thought for a moment before stating the benchmarks for travel time at a mid-level explorer's level.
"Let's see. If we're talking about walking, even an explorer wouldn't move at a speed much different from ordinary people. If we're walking, it means we're not in that much of a hurry."
"That makes sense. There's certainly no need to push your speed if you aren't in a rush."
"Yes. However, if we're running, even if it’s just a light jog by an explorer's standards, our speed would be faster than an Olympic marathon runner."
"That much for just a 'light jog'? A full marathon takes about two hours, so you could cover more than ten kilometers in just thirty minutes... and without much fatigue."
Kiritani-san wore an expression that was halfway between being fed up and impressed, pressing a hand to his forehead as if he had a headache. Yuta-san, sitting next to him, also looked slightly surprised. In Yuta-san's case, he probably had some grasp of it from accompanying us on site visits, but hearing the concrete numbers likely made him realize the absurdity of explorers all over again.
Even as we said it ourselves, I truly felt that we had moved quite far beyond the realm of ordinary people.
"...In the case of a bicycle, I think we could easily cover fifty or sixty kilometers in an hour without much fatigue. Even on a road that crosses over a mountain, I think we could go without changing our speed much from a flat road."
"By 'crossing a mountain,' do you mean a small hill in the city, or a full-scale mountain meant for climbing? Which is it?"
"The full-scale mountain. Even on a mountain pass with steep grades at an elevation of nearly a thousand meters, I think we could cross it without much trouble."
"Do you guys even really need a car? I'm starting to feel like you're basically riding motorcycles..."
His suspicion was justified. Unfortunately, however, it would be difficult to travel like a motorcycle on a bicycle due to durability and braking performance. On a downhill mountain road, the brakes would likely be insufficient for the task.
Going over a cliff because I couldn't slow down... no thank you. Though, even if I did fall to the bottom of a ravine, I felt like I could probably survive without injury.
"They're just bicycles students use for school, after all. They aren't professional racing bikes that cost hundreds of thousands of yen. They aren't built to handle that much strain. Well, even a racing bike probably wouldn't hold up to an explorer's full power."
"Even if you can cross a proper mountain, they're only 'so-so,' then?"
"They're so-so. Besides, it’s hard to transport large quantities of supplies on a bicycle. Even if we're going to develop the training ground ourselves, we'll need to bring in the proper tools."
"Are you not going to hire a contractor for the land preparation?" Kiritani-san tilted his head in confusion when Yuji mentioned the issue of developing the training ground. It was a reasonable question, but we intended to develop the training ground ourselves as part of our training.
If an explorer was at a decent level and had a single sturdy shovel, they could probably go toe-to-toe with a small piece of heavy machinery. Plus, when you factored in skills, it was possible to achieve work efficiency that surpassed a mediocre power shovel.
"We’ve been talking about building it with our own hands. Since we haven't decided on a place to buy yet, there’s no concrete plan, but we'll do it bit by bit as part of our training."
"I see, doing it yourselves exactly how you want it. That’s nice. However, there is one thing I want you to be careful about."
Hearing Yuji's plan for developing the training ground, Kiritani-san looked intrigued, but he also issued a warning with a more serious expression.
"If you're dealing with land in mountainous areas, having amateurs clear or excavate however they like can cause landslides when heavy rain falls. Once your development plan is set, you should consult a professional at least once. If you don't grasp beforehand which areas shouldn't be touched due to the terrain or soil quality, you'll be the ones crying about it later."
"Now that you mention it, I occasionally see that on the news. Large-scale debris flows caused by unplanned deforestation..."
"Yes, incidents like those. It would be one thing if it were deep in the mountains where it wouldn't bother anyone, but if people get caught in it, it turns into a disaster. It becomes a matter of the landowner's management responsibility."
Hearing that, I felt like it might be better to leave it to professional contractors rather than having amateurs mess around with it. But then, that would create a financial problem. How much would it cost to develop a remote mountain area? It would depend on the location and the size, but in the worst case, it could cost tens of millions.
That said, depending on the property, we would have to consider those kinds of issues. If we thought about it too lightly, we would regret it later.
"We'll keep that in mind."
"Good. Still, if explorers have that kind of mobility even on foot or by bicycle, it seems we can broaden the search range considerably."
"Please keep it 'so-so,' as it also depends on road conditions. In suburban areas with many traffic lights, we'll still be held up to some extent."
"I suppose it won't be a single rural road for the entire route. Understood."
With that, once we had provided a general set of conditions regarding travel to the property, Kiritani-san and Yuta-san immediately began sorting through the property documents.
I hoped some good properties would turn up.
After a careful examination, two properties remained from the documents Yuta-san had brought. The first was a property on a lone, low mountain rising out of a landscape of lush greenery. The second was a section of a mountainous area near a local train station.
In terms of size, the second one was larger, but the first one could be reached in about an hour by bicycle.
"Of the documents I brought today, these two are the ones that meet the travel conditions you mentioned earlier."
"The first one looks convenient for travel, and the second one has an attractive size," Yuji observed.
"I think travel has become much easier compared to the properties we went to see last time," Yuta-san added.
With that, Yuta-san began a detailed explanation of the remaining documents.
"First, the first property—to put it simply, it’s a piece of abandoned farmland near a mountainous area."
"Abandoned farmland?"
"It seems a farmer used to grow vegetables there, but they lost their successor a few years ago and it was abandoned. To use this as a field again, it would probably cost quite a bit to redevelop."
"So that's why it's so overgrown..."
The majority of the lush green grass shown in the attached photos was likely what Yuta-san meant by 'former fields.' Was it a large-scale farmer, or did several farmers go out of business because they didn't have successors?
Well, it was in a mountainous area on the outskirts of the city, so it didn't look like there would be much in the way of "neighborhood associations." Even if we made some loud noises during combat training, no one would probably come barging in to yell at us for being noisy... probably.
"However, since it's abandoned farmland near the mountains, wild animals like boars occasionally come out. You have to be careful not to be attacked, but..."
"We can just fight back if it comes to that, so it won't be a problem," Yuji replied.
"Haha, I suppose so. I've encountered scenes like that many times before..."
At Yuji's response, Yuta-san's face twitched slightly as he looked up at the ceiling with distant eyes. He was probably remembering the scenes of wild animals begging for their lives that he had witnessed during site visits.
If he had seen that, there was no reason to doubt Yuji's words that wild animals coming down from the mountains wouldn't be a problem. Kiritani-san, who had apparently seen the recorded footage, also wore a slightly twitching expression next to Yuta-san.
"Ahem, I'll continue. Because of that, while transportation is convenient, there are almost no permanent residents around the property. Well, even though I say transportation is convenient, there are no public vehicles nearby."
"It seems like we can travel there by bicycle without trouble, so that's fine. You said there's no public transport nearby, but even from the nearest station, it shouldn't take more than twenty minutes if we run."
"Then the travel aspect isn't an issue."
The travel conditions we had added this time didn't seem to be a problem. A property within a distance we could travel ourselves by bicycle was good. If it was in a remote area, we would have to move according to the public transportation schedules.
"Now, setting aside the surrounding information, I'll explain the property itself. The area is about 3.28 hectares."
"That's quite large. Is it the entire mountain shown in this photo?"
"Yes, it’s the entire mountain in the photo. The height of the mountain is approximately sixty meters."
"Sixty meters... That's about the same as a twenty-story building."
In the photo, it looked like a small hill, but it was a fairly large mountain. This whole mountain...? Wouldn't this property be expensive?
"Most of the trees growing on the mountain are cedar... trees that were planted in the past."
"A cedar mountain? The pollen must be terrible depending on the season."
Yuta-san gave an ambiguous smile in response to Yuji's question, as Yuji looked slightly repulsed. If someone who bought this mountain had hay fever, the season when the pollen flies would be hell.
Fortunately, we didn't have hay fever, but a cedar mountain might be a bit of a concern. It’s not like we could just cut them all down because we didn't like pollen.
"As for the price of this property..."
"How much is it?"
"Excluding fees, it's approximately forty-five million yen."
Forty-five million. That was close to the upper limit of our budget. If we added the fees, it would be right on the edge...
It wasn't that we couldn't buy it, but maybe a slightly cheaper property would be better?
Good properties are expensive. That’s only natural, I suppose.